The co-founder of Big Think, one of Summers' investments, on why the former Harvard president is the best choice for Secretary of the Treasury.
After reading the follow-on comments to Sheryl Sandberg's recent defense of Larry Summers on the Huffington Post and her endorsement of his candidacy for the Treasury, we at Big Think feel obliged to further this important conversation. Many commenters were quick to seize on certain impolitic remarks as disqualifiers of Larry's candidacy for Treasury secretary. But Sheryl's personal account of how Larry mentored and encouraged her and other women in the Treasury invites a serious reconsideration of all the attacks waged against him, not just those involving his views on women. Most arguments against Larry share a backwards premise. Larry's gaffes are byproducts of an expansive way of thinking, unrestrained by politics, which is precisely why he should be at the helm of the Treasury Department under President Obama.
Larry engages the world with a true devotion to reason and logic. Anyone who has ever sat across from him in a bid to earn his support for an initiative or idea, as we once did in pitching him the concept behind Big Think (he is now an investor), knows that his first response to any idea is 'tell me the best argument against it.' You find yourself standing on the opposing side of your own beliefs and interests--a perspective far too few of us adopt, least of all our politicians. Solving our current economic crisis demands transcending orthodoxy. By nature—and will—Larry strives to see issues from all sides; he is not bound by ideology.
If President-elect Obama truly does forecast a new Age of Empiricism, then Larry is the best choice for Treasury.
Claims that Larry’s blind allegiance to capitalist dogma helped cause the economic crisis in his prior tenure at Treasury omit a number of critical facts and ignore the bigger picture. In an online petition opposing his nomination, Larry's critics cite his support of 1999 banking deregulation measures “that led to the rise of ‘mega-banks’ and the current financial crisis”. According to the non-partisan Factcheck.org, that measure, known as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, was supported by a broad coalition on both sides of the aisle—signed by President Clinton—and is now widely considered to have softened the banking crisis by diversifying the interests of many banks. The critical failing of that measure, says Factcheck, was its failure to “establish a single, independent regulatory body with jurisdiction over Fannie and Freddie.” It was Larry who warned of the twisted set of incentives under which the quasi-government mortgage companies were operating. Unfortunately, those concerns were brushed aside during a legislative process in which all of D.C.'s worst tendencies were in overdrive.
An article in The Daily Beast offers a similar red herring. Alex Gibney suggests that Larry is at fault for causing the Enron scandal even though, the author readily concedes, he had no awareness of it whatsoever. Larry's crime here was mediating between the energy industry and the state of California. It was failings on both sides, including California's insane restrictions on building new energy plants, which led to the impasse. In that case, Larry left the problem to the market and the market resolved it in due time. It’s not Larry’s fault that several of the top brass at Enron were cooking the books and lining their pockets at the same time. Larry demonstrated wise judgment regarding when to use the wealth of government and exhibited the intellectual nuance necessary to guide us, by reason, into a post-partisan era.
In 2001, Larry left Washington to pursue an agenda of radical reform Harvard as its new president. He believed Harvard could be ground zero for rethinking how we prepare students for a global age driven by science and innovation. In his inauguration speech, Larry asked why students are so comfortable with scientific illiteracy; he went on to infuriate the campus mandarins in Cambridge with charges of academic puffery and, worse yet, irrelevance, as he boldly shifted resources and curricular emphasis in new directions. For each enemy he made on the faculty, he made two friends among Harvard students and alumni who largely supported his crusade. Despite his short tenure, Larry’s legacy of change is reflected in institutions like the Broad Institute, which brought together Harvard and MIT for innovative research collaborations on stem cells.
A study of Larry's record reveals a trenchant and pragmatic understanding that the free market, intelligently governed, is the greatest vehicle for progress. As Larry reminded the audience at Big Think's economic forum last month, alongside George Soros and Robert Merton, he is a thoughtful and forward-thinking leader who inspires famous, and occasionally infamous, determination. If President-elect Obama truly does forecast a new Age of Empiricism, then Larry is the best choice for Treasury. He will approach every decision with intellectual sophistication and sober objectivity. These days, we don’t have time to placate political correctness. We need the best minds at work.
Peter Hopkins is a graduate of Harvard College and a former producer at Charlie Rose. He co-founded the knowledge website Big Think in 2007.
Tracy Quan's latest novel is Diary of a Jetsetting Call Girl, set in Provence and praised in The Nation as a "deft account of occupational rigors and anxieties before the crash." Tracy's debut, Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl, and the sequel, Diary of a Married Call Girl, are international bestsellers. A regular columnist for The Guardian, she has written for many publications including Cosmopolitan, The Financial Times, and The New York Times.
Joe Mathews is a journalist, an Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation, and a contributing writer at the Los Angeles Times. He previously served as Justice Department reporter for the Wall Street Journal and as a city desk reporter at the Baltimore Sun. He is the author of The People’s Machine: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy.
Gerald Posner is the award-winning author of 10 investigative nonfiction bestsellers, ranging from political assassinations, to Nazi war criminals, to 9/11, to terrorism (www.posner.com). Posner lives in Miami Beach with his wife, the author Trisha Posner.
The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
Renata Espinosa is the New York editor of Fashion Wire Daily. She is also the co-founder of impressionistic fashion and art blog TheNuNu and a sometimes backup dancer for "The Anna Copa Cabanna Show."
Amanda Fortini has written for The New Yorker, Slate, Elle, and New York, among other publications. She lives in Los Angeles.
Enron: it wasn't Larry's fault. Financial deregulation: it wasn't Larry's fault. Failure as Harvard president: it wasn't Larry's fault. Disastrous World Bank policy: IT WASN'T LARRY'S FAULT.
Count me out on the Larry express train. We're facing too many challenges to let another fiasco become Not Larry's Fault.
Have to agree with slaneyblack's comments. Larry, sorry you are out of a job, why can't you keep one? hummmmmm
Larry Summers is actually a champion for women
This is a comment from Linda Bilmes. I am a professor of public budgeting at the Kennedy School and co-author of The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict. As someone who has known Larry Summers for many years, I'd like to set the record straight about his support for women.
Larry is one of the few really smart prominent men around who has actually mentored and helped launch and advance the careers of many prominent and successful women - including Sheryl Sandberg (CEO of Facebook) and Sylvia Matthews (Gates Foundation). Below is a letter sent to the Harvard Crimson by a whole group of his former women students who argue forcefully that he was a fantastic mentor. How many male professors can match that?
Sure, Larry's comments about women in science could have been phrased better. But anyone who takes the time to actually read his speech will see that the words were taken way out of context by the media. There are plenty of famous men around (we know who they are) who talk a good game but surround themselves with male acolytes. Larry's record - at the World Bank, Treasury, and at Harvard - was to promote women to top positions based on merit. Honestly, we would be lucky to have this man as Treasury Secretary -- not just because he is the best qualified person for the job, but also because he would continue to be a champion and mentor for talented women.
Published by the Harvard Crimson on Monday, February 28, 2005 12:00 AM
To the editors:
We are women from the Harvard College Class of 1980. We first met University President Lawrence H. Summers when we were undergraduates, and he was a graduate student and resident economics tutor in Lowell House.
Havard could be a somewhat daunting place for many students, and particularly for women, in those days. Our class was 60 percent men, it was not especially diverse, and there was a larger contingent of legatees than there is today. There were also far fewer female professors, teaching fellows, and graduate students.
Larry was for some of us an Economics 10 section leader, for others an informal economics tutor, and a friend and advisor to each of us. He offered all of us help and encouragement in our ability to perform at the highest levels in our academic work. He took our comments and arguments seriously and treated each of us with the greatest respect. He fostered in us an appreciation for logical
thought, intellectual honesty, and scientific rigor in analyzing issues. Perhaps most importantly, he urged us to have confidence in our abilities. He never made the slightest distinction between us and our male peers.
In addition, Larry has been a friend to us throughout our subsequent careers, often providing support, encouragement, and wise counsel.
As our 25th reunion approaches this June, when we look back on our careers we all feel extraordinarily fortunate to have had the benefit of Larry's encouragement and mentoring during our college years. We wish to state, on the record, our appreciation for Larry's help in developing our analytical skills and in strengthening our resolve to achieve at the highest levels in our professional lives.
NICOLE SINEK ARNABOLDI '80
New York, N.Y.
LINDA BILMES '80
Cambridge, Mass.
SHARMINI COOREY '80
Washington, D.C.
CATHERINE HODGMAN HELM '80
Los Angeles, Calif.
NANCY ROSE '80
Cambridge, Mass.
CYNTHIA TORRES '80
Santa Monica, Calif.
The point is: he was aware that there was likely market manipulation by Enron and others but discounted it as beside the point. I love that line, "Larry left it to the market and the market resolved it in due time." What a joke. The energy crisis was stopped by government intervention. For the current economic crisis, should we "leave it to the market and let the market resolve it in due time?" "Due time" is like that phrase that economists used to use - "the long run," as in markets will always right themselves in the long run.But as Keynes reminded us, in the "long run, we are all dead."
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